Papers Relating to Foreign Affairs, Accompanying the Annual Message of the President to the Second Session Thirty-eighth Congress, Part IV, Appendix to diplomatic correspondence of 1865; the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, late president of the United States of America, and the attempted assassination of William H. Seward, Secretary of State, and Frederick W. Seward, Assistant Secretary, on the evening of the 14th of April, 1865; expressions of condolence and sympathy inspired by these events

German Residents of London

London, April 27, 1865.

Sir: We, the undersigned, speaking the feelings of a large number of Germans resident in England, express our sincere grief at the destruction of the life of the President of the United States, whose very forbearance and leniency in the hour of national triumph has not been able to stay the hands of assassins.

While deeply deploring that the joy we have felt at the recent victories of the American republic should thus be marred by the untimely and violent death of its Chief Magistrate, we firmly trust that the people of the United States, who have carried on during four years a gigantic war in the cause of freedom and civilization, will only feel nerved to further exertions in rooting out the hateful institutions from which the slaveholders’ rebellion, with all its attendant crimes, has sprung.

We beg you, sir, to convey these sympathetic sentiments of ours to the authorities of your free and great republic, and we subscribe ourselves yours obediently,

• KARL BLIND.
• A. HEINTZMANN.
• P. H BEMDES.
• FERDINAND FREELIGRATH.
• ERNEST SUCH.
• E. G. RAVENSTEIN.
• NICOLAS TRUBNER.
• GOTTFRIED KINKER.

His Excellency Mr. adams,
United States Ambassador in London.